Epistaxis
by DirtWaterTomahawk
Summary: Cassian had seen the truth, the terrifying aftermath of Jyn bleeding from her lips, eyes and nose, burns and cuts and scrapes and the deep puncture in her side from wayward debris as they raced ahead of the blast front, the cratered blaster wound in her shoulder, a mess of red and black. The 80 minutes to medical support had aged him 80 years. Jyn/Cassian (partial fix-it)
1. A Lot of Mismatched Pieces

Jyn's ascent into full wakefulness is slower than usual. She is first aware of the pounding in her head, a distant, throbbing pressure that usually happens when she is dehydrated or in the presence of a strong odor too long. A stifling weight pins her on her back, and she is very warm; _a blanket_ she surmises.

She knows there is pain, but it's hard to pinpoint where just yet. Her senses are foggy. Some distant part of her can tell she is on her back, too comfortable to be anywhere but a bed, too warm to be in danger. One thing at a time; her eyelids feel heavy. She wiggles her toes, relieved to feel them twitch obediently. It's likely her spine has come through unscathed.

Next her hands. Jyn focuses on the right and tries to flex it, but there's no response. A distant beeping speeds up. She tries again and is shocked to feel something squeeze back. Her brain starts firing; she couldn't close it because she was holding something, and that something was holding on to her in return. The momentary fear has got her heart pumping and she has enough adrenaline to open her eyes. The room is mercifully dim, because, she realizes, she is in the blurry shadow of a person standing over her.

"You're awake." He sounds relieved.

"Bohdi?" It's hard to speak, her tongue dry as Tattooine.

There's a straw at her lips, "sorry, sorry, here, drink." She's in a medical bay of some kind. She is alive, she is safe and the plans…the plans!

"Bohdi, did we-"

"No one is sure. Princess Leia had the plans, but she's gone missing. They tell me that no news is good news."

A droid she has just noticed moves quietly out of the room. Bohdi grimaces at the unspoken question. "It's gone to fetch someone from Command. They insisted they be notified when you regained consciousness." He scratches anxiously behind his ear. " Apparently our first act as members of the rebellion being mutiny didn't sit well with certain folks." Jyn snorts in laughter, more sincere for its inappropriateness, for the sharp sting in her aching side, and smiles back when he grins sheepishly.

"In my defense, I thought it would be my last act as well. If I'd known they had any hope of exacting consequences I'd be halfway across the galaxy by now," she assures breezily, but Bohdi just slouches back into a chair.

"You're telling me," he mumbles into his hands. She can't help but smile at this. Disobedience has been bred into her, has been her Plan A for years now. The young man must be terrified; he has committed more treason in the last week than he has probably ever imagined in the rest of his life.

A medic leans in the door, and seeing her awake, eases forward, plucking a chart from the end of the bed and studying the seemingly random numbers on machinery sitting nearby.

"Don't mind me," he assures dismissively, "just checking your vitals." He gives her a perfunctory smile, scribbling a few lines onto the page.

"Bohdi….how long have I been out?"

"We got back 4 days ago. You've woken up before, actually. You were just never this coherent."

Bohdi leans back, and rests his crossed ankles on her bedside, the picture of exhaustion. "Almost no one from the first wave made it." He says frankly, tone flat. "When you and Cassian sent the plans, General Raddus received them, but his ship was attacked by Darth Vader. The last transmission the Rebels got about it, Princess Leia and her ship were on the run. They went missing in the Tatoo System. "

Jyn nods, "I think no news is good news then, I expect the Empire would be happy to share if- what are you doing?"

The medic recoils a bit on his way to her elbow. "I was just double-checking the fluids drip. I need to increase the volume so you don't get dehydrated."

The door swings open, and Jyn feels the rush of loathing before she fully registers who is standing in the entryway. Bohdi snaps straight. "General Draven."

The medic looks up and frowns. "If you'll excuse me." He's out the door in a blink, chart forgotten on an extra chair.

"Pilot Rook. Good to see you up on your feet." His eyes swing in Jyn's direction and she feels quite suddenly vulnerable, laid out in this bed, obviously still weak. Jyn tries to pull herself upright, and Bohdi is there immediately. "Let me help you," he says a little too loudly, helping her upright by her shoulders. He leans close to her ear under the guise of adjusting the pillows behind her. "Take it easy. They've been sedating you, it's probably still in your system."

"Thank you." Jyn doesn't bother throwing her voice. Draven has been watching her face the entire time, and she is certainly a better actor than Bohdi. The general has all the power, and she waits for him to set the tone of conversation.

"Miss Erso, we are very fortunate to be seeing you again. You were both in a bad way when one of the transports snatched you off the beach."

Jyn's eyebrows pinch together and she turns to Rook. "You weren't on the beach, you…" her eyes dart back and a hard lump squeezes her throat. "Did…..did he…make it?"

Draven's smile is surprisingly kind. "Captain Andor has been on his feet and working light duty for days. In fact I'd wager he won't be far behind-" he stops abruptly and looks up when the man himself swings into the doorway.

Cassian's eyes are wide, and his mouth hangs open. He stares right into her eyes with an unguarded intensity for a moment and Jyn hardly breathes. It is so good to see him _alive,_ so unspeakably comforting and she can hardly stand it. Then his head swings to Bohdi, then around again to Draven, who is smirking at him knowingly. Cassian's jaw snaps closed, his arms drop to his side, and his heels come together with an audible click. "I heard that she was awake and with…as her handler… considering, well…" he flounders.

Jyn would be more offended by the use of the word 'handler', except that he keeps being so charmingly flustered and _alive,_ and well, it's not exactly inaccurate.

"Of course." Draven assures patiently, although it's anyone's guess what he's agreeing to, Cassian's jaw still working up and down as he looks for the right defense. " You are already familiar with what I've come here to tell these two, correct? " He doesn't wait for an answer. "I expect you will fill them in for me. " He nods politely and gently turns Cassian's shoulder to pass through the doorway and away.

It's quiet for a long moment. "Fill us in on what?" Bohdi asks.

Cassian takes a moment to collect himself, to jumble together a plan. Better to establish the basics first, to warm up the tone of things before launching into business. "How are you doling?" Bohdi is standing on Jyn's right, so he steps up on the left side of the bed.

She smiles at him and a knot in his chest loosens. "I'm fine. Sore, but I think that's just from laying here so long. I'm sure they'll let me go when they see it's nothing serious." She's very wrong, of course. Cassian had seen the truth, the terrifying aftermath of Jyn bleeding from her lips, eyes and nose, burns and cuts and scrapes and the deep puncture wound in her side from wayward debris as they raced ahead of the blast front, the cratered blaster wound in her shoulder, a mess of red and black. The 80 minutes to medical support had aged him 80 years, lain out across the transport floor, gasping for breath and gripping her cold fingers in his hand. Epistaxis, the medic had told him. It was a nosebleed so severe that it backed up into her eyes. He'd been certain she had died at least twice.

"I'm sure you'll be up any time now," he murmurs agreeably, taking her hand. No need to burden her with the realities. "How about you? How are you feeling?" He meets Rook's eye across the bed.

"Annoyed," he quips. "Fill us in on _what,_ Cassian?"

Cassian has been in intelligence since the tender age of 12, and he knows how to keep his face perfectly flat, lips pulled downward in a perpetual frown. "On our assignment. Once Jyn is discharged, we'll be going off planet to visit the planet Fest. We received some intelligence about new manufacturing operations there, and we'll be meeting with a contact there to find out the implications."

Bohdi is shaking his head no before Cassian gets through his explanation. "No way. That place is _crawling_ with storm troopers, I've made deliveries there. And Jyn is in no condition, you saw it for yourse-"

"I'm _fine."_ Jyn interrupts. " Where's the droid? He can discharge me right?" Bohdi isn't done.

"What about our mutiny? Aren't they worried we'll go off script again? And besides, we haven't had time to process everything that happened on Scarif! Or Alderaan! We have -"

" _Bohdi!"_ Cassian grinds out.

"What happened on Alderaan?" Jyn interrupts again.

" _Nothing._ " Cassian insists. "We'll talk about it more when you are free to go. You just focus on being fully recovered. You had me scared…" he trails off, and his frown lines are more pronounced than usual.

"I'm fine." She assures again, softer. He lifts his hand out of hers gently.

"I'll go talk to the medic team about when you can be discharged." Halfway to the door, he turns around and walks up to Bohdi, pressing something into his hand. "Just in case."

Bohdi tries to hand it back "I already have one, we talked about this. I've-"

"I know." His head tilts in Jyn's direction. "It's for her, if…"

"Then why not just give it to her?"

"I'm right here, you know." Jyn huffs irritably.

Cassian smiles for the first time since he came in, ruefully, "Because of who she is as a person, let's not give her my blaster just yet," and rolls his eyes conspiratorily at Bohdi as if this should be obvious. He's out the door before she can come to her own defense.

"What in the hell does THAT mean?" she demands, but Bohdi is grinning rather smugly at her.

"It means he trusts me with 2 blasters before he trusts you with one." His tone is arch, checking his nails in feigned boredom.

Her hand twitches instinctively, ready to take a swing, and she tries not to admit that Cassian may have a point… but the interaction is still strange. There's been a few strange points in this conversation already, odd sticking points. It's like there's another language in the subtext; blasters, "just in case," and the lack of punishment, and Alderaan…

"In case of what?" She asks quietly. The smile drops off Bohdi's face. He nods and all the weariness comes rushing back to his face. She can see now the stoop of his shoulders, the dark smudges under his eyes.

"We should talk about that, actually." He drops into a seat again, and Jyn twists herself a little more upright.

Bohdi leans forward and begins to explain what she has missed in this last week.


	2. A Real Splash Zone

Chapter 2

During the most recent census of the planet, the population of Alderaan had hovered just over 2 billion people. Like most worlds, there was some flexibility in that number; visiting merchants, illegal immigration, uncounted refuges from places that had suffered brutal consequences of war. It wasn't clear the precise number of lives that had been quite abruptly extinguished; only that the lives of 2 retired doctors living out a peaceful existence in a small farming village went wholly unaccounted.

Vosix (Vox to his friends) had always enjoyed sharing the deeply romantic story of his parent's life. They'd met in medical training and had been instant rivals and fast friends. That had quickly boiled over into a passionate romance that had stood the test of time. Even living quietly off grid in the small town of Nuba, they were furiously competitive and Vox thrilled to their infrequent letters explaining new techniques they had tried in farming and healing.

There would be no more letters now. Idra had confirmed it upon her return; she and 3 other intelligence officers had gone to confirm the seemingly impossible. Alderaan had been entirely obliterated. The Death Star had not been lightly dubbed the Planet Killer. True to it's history, the Empire was not prone to exaggeration and this stark backdrop painted the losses at Scarif and the uncertainty of the Death Star plans location in a particular shade of despair. Idra had a particular gift for sneaking, and was deviously smart. However, Vox knew she was ill-suited for intelligence; the girl was an incorrigible gossip. And sure, he could be trusted with the details she often shared in passing with him, but Vox was very smart too. He had been top of his class, after all. And it had not taken much to connect the scattered pieces (The Death Star, the bloodiness of Scarif, the infamous Galen Erso) and construct a suspicious picture.

It was pure happenstance that Jyn Erso had been entrusted to his care, and what he saw there had only heightened his suspicions. The only company she kept was the infrequent look-in by one Captain Andor and the constant guardianship of Imperial deserter Bohdi Rook. While Captain Andor's service record and 2 decades of service, Idra stressed, had left his character above censure, there was no denying the queer connection of the pilot and Jyn. Both of their stories reeked of self-interest and faulty loyalties. So when he happened to prescribe some sedatives to "prevent pain" it was certainly with the Alliance in mind. And when she woke anyway, surprisingly coherent and hardy, it was not any sort of personal vendetta that led him to dial the potent medication up into dangerous territory. The dry chap of her lips, a symptom of kidneys working hard to filter out sedatives, showed him that he needn't push much further to achieve his goal. There was nothing to be gained by giving the Imperial traitor an ally, nor giving her the opportunity to divert the steady Captain. This concern was only confirmed when Capt. Andor gravely inquired about his expected timeline for her release. "We are urgently needed back on the mission roster." He explained unnecessarily. Vox had no doubt that Cassian could convincingly lie to him in any other circumstance, but he could see the truth because he was looking for it; the Captain's concern was personal and urgent.

When Cassian was new to intelligence, he had gone through his trials by way of fire. General Draven had held no compunctions about employing children when they had nowhere else to go, and had fostered his loathing for the Empire as much as he could from the age of 6 to 12. At that point, confident that his loyalty was secured, Draven convinced him to enroll in a trooper academy in the heart of Coruscant itself. It was kept close to the vest that it had required some lobbying by Senator Organa to secure his place; the school mostly catered to children of the elite preparing for the run to glory.

There, in the pit of vipers, Cassian had learned to see lies that he was not expecting. He'd learned that his Outer Rim accent would always make him a target of ridicule, and had learned that he could use this to convince them he was no threat; a far-space country boy with no potential to threaten the futures of the privileged. He'd learned the advantages of coming at his opponents from a position of weakness; sometimes the muscle bound crony, others the doltish farm boy around whom secrets could be let slip, even the weasel-y keeper of secrets always one betrayal ahead of what they were expecting.

So when that deep-rooted alarm went off speaking to the tall medic he'd passed in the hall, he knew to listen to it. He started counting the signs of lying he'd learned over time; the feet pointed off to the side, the slight delay in hand gestures to the explanation it matched, the subtle negative shake of his head even as he agreed that Jyn would recover fully. "You'll be the first to know if her condition changes, sir." He was leaning back and away and the urgency struck him like a thunderbolt.

"Thank you, Mr…."

"Vosix, sir." The medic pointed plaintively at his nametag. Some of the tension leaked out, so Cassian thought this was true, at least.

"Mr Vosix. I'll come seek you out directly when I need more information hm?" Cassian hadn't meant that to be quite so threatening, so he tempered it with a smile and turned on his heel.

It took 33 steps to reach Jyn's room again. He knew because he counted every one of them, pulse pounding in his ears as he carefully measured his pace. There was no knowing how many allies Vox had secured for his sinister purpose and there was no time to work it out of him.

He is somewhat gratified to see Bohdi sitting up straight, hand already on his blaster when he glides through the door and shuts it behind him. All of the forced ease disappears in a heartbeat, "Go ready a ship. We have to go NOW."

"Captain, she's out, I don't know what happened! I was telling her about Alderaan and she sort of slumped down…"

Cassian is already yanking the equipment unceremoniously from her arm, wincing at the spurt of blood when the needle pops loose. "Get the ship ready. I will get Jyn there," he grits out. When a few suction cups pop loose from over her breastbone, an alarm goes off. Bohdi isn't totally sure, but he thinks the sound Andor makes is a cuss word in some language. He drops the captain's blaster by his hand and darts out to do as he was told.

Cassian is already tying a strip of cloth over her bleeding arm when he is interrupted.

"What in the _hell_ do you think you are doing?!"

He doesn't bother to look up at the woman in the doorway, "I don't have time to explain it." He's hoping she'll run off for security; it'll give him time to make his getaway. 2 hands shove him back.

"Captain, is this for official business? Because I must say, you've done a real bang up job making things worse."

"Command has asked me to get her out of here as soon as possible. She's…..highly contagious and it can become very dangerous." He gives her a second to consider her options.

She squints at him for a moment. "You work in intelligence, right?"

Cassian blinks at the non-sequitur. "Perhaps."

She rolls her eyes. "You're supposed to be the best, and that's the lie you come up with? We really are in trouble." She waves her hand at a cabinet. "there are gloves and masks in there, grab a few. If we're going to say she's infectious, we have to _act like it,_ yes?" Cassian obeys. There's no time to question any help he can get. He snatches a handful of gloves and several masks, and reassesses his opinion when he turns around. The medic has her entire fist around a syringe and has just plunged it into Jyn's chest.

"What in the Emperor's black heart-!"

"I have to create some symptoms. Now shush and get the mask on her face." He watches in amazement as red dots raise across Jyn's arms rapidly. "Sometime today, Captain."

He nods and dons gloves, secures a mask over Jyn's face gently. The female medic is staring intently at the machinery. "Oh Force…"she whispers. She jumps into action suddenly, darting out of the room. There's no saying what she has gone to do, so Cassian works at unlocking the wheels on the bed. When she comes back in the room she has another syringe and a bottle.

"Now hold on!" Cassian puts a hand up to stop her.

"Someone turned her sedative up way too high." She snaps urgently. "She needs adrenaline, and she needs it NOW." She glares plaintively as she jabs the needle into the lid and pulls up the plunger. "I assume we want her to survive the next 24 hours or so?" The sheet is yanked back and she stabs it into Jyn's thigh. "There. Now, where are we taking her?"

"The hangar. I've a ship ready." At least he hopes so; Bohdi is as suspiciously regarded as Jyn and the tension in the aftermath of Alderaan's destruction has been palpable.

"Right," she nods. "Let's go then. You push, I need to be close to close to her to monitor her breathing." She secretes the bottle and a few packages that look suspiciously like more syringes in her pockets and they dart out into the hall.

"Stand back!" She calls loudly to a group standing further down the hall as they hurry along. "Highly contagious pathogen coming through!" Folks scatter and Cassian is intensely grateful that she has forced the mask and gloves on him. The little boost of authenticity seems to be doing the trick. They pass fairly unchallenged thanks to her aggressive campaign of warning and threats. ("Stay far back! It's a real splash zone on this one! Highly contagious fever! If you start feeling sick, go to the med bay, even this close you can be infected!")

The first signs of trouble occur in the hangar, where Commander Ym stands. She already looks disapproving before they come clattering into view, midway through lecturing 2 young men who are clutching their heads or side in obvious discomfort. "And what fresh hell is this?" She shouts. The 2 rebels have the sense to slink away and Cassian just keeps moving.

"Just a little emergency, I'm taking care of it." He assures her confidently. He yanks his mask down in the hopes that his face will lend some credibility.

"Andor, I swear if this trend of insubordination continues…" he can't hear the rest over rattling of the castors on the ship's ramp.

"We'll be back in no time, ma'am." The medic tosses cheerily over her shoulder as she closes the ramp in the face of Leia's approach. "We should go." She comments offhandedly, securing Jyn's bed in place in the cargo area. He hadn't exactly expected a further accomplice, but knowing Jyn's condition he suspects that there is a lot to be gained with this woman aboard.

"Bohdi! Let's go!" he is clambering into the co-pilot's seat but freezes at the sight of his face. Bohdi's lip is split, and his cheek is a deep purple. His nose is quite obviously broken, shirt bloody.

"Rehby when yuh are, Capin." He murmurs thickly, smiling ridiculously. Things click into place, even as Cassian's hands fly through the familiar sequence of start-up.

"Did they start it?" He's thinking of the 2 men that Ym was lecturing.

"Dozen mabber. I fimished et." Bohdi dismisses. The ship lurches up, and out into open air.

"So this is how it's done?" The voice makes them both jump. "I'm Ellie, by the way."

"Hi Ellie." Bohdi keeps his confusion to himself.

"Do what?" Cassian asks.

"Mutiny of course. You are building quite a reputation for it." Bohdi snorts out a laugh that makes him cough. "I always imagined it was more… deliberate." The coughing laughter gets worse.

"To be honest, I'm still figuring it out myself." Cassian mutters. He turns to the pilot. "Go get cleaned up, I can handle things."

"Aye, Cappum." Bohdi salutes cheekily.

"I can help with that!" Ellie follows him out and Cassian finally indulges in the silence of hyperspace.

 **AN: I promise Cassian and Jyn will actually interact soon. I'm just trying to get the plot on it's feet before I dig too far into the personal stuff. What do you think of the dialogue? Is it easy to follow? Does it seem natural or forced?**


	3. 1000 Leagues of Space

**Chapter 3**

 **AN: I already fucked up, yall. Forgot that Leia was off being Jabba-napped, so I replaced her brief role in the last chapter with Commander Ym. No idea if she's canonical, saw the name in another story, liked it,** **stole** **borrowed it. Bing bang boom.**

It wasn't immediately obvious that Ellie's personality could lend itself to a proficient medic. She was somewhere between eternally cheerfully and endlessly sarcastic and Bohdi felt like the switches were giving him whiplash. It was that, or her seemingly endless supply of hands.

She'd only been on the ship and out of his sight for about 7 minutes, but she'd already located the medical supplies onboard (as well as the abundant depths of her white coat pockets) and was tending to Jyn, swiftly (painfully) aligning his nose, devesting him of his soiled shirt and upbraiding their "ill-conceived quarter-assed" escape all without breaking a sweat. There was no point trying to keep track of her.

He was reminded, absurdly, of flight training. He'd known in the first day that he was out of his league; the economical, precise movements of his classmates who still managed full conversation made him look like an armless slug by comparison. It had been so intimidating that he had gladly leaned into the rumor that his aspiration had been a simple transport freighter. Far from enemy lines, good steady work, and little to no competition. A perfect fit for the dead last of his class.

Well, that had taken a depressing turn. His rebel compatriots had been no kinder though; war was an ugly thing and no one knew that better than the men and women on the frontlines. It seemed impossible, the number of ships and crew that came and went in the hallowed hangars of Yavin IV. Bohdi tried not to hold it against them.

Something snapped in his face. Her hand. "Are you even listening?"

"Uhh…"

"Oh nevermind," she rolls her eyes. "That was rhetorical. I wouldn't normally explain this, but given the multiple angles of your face injuries, I think it's important to specify that getting hit in the face again would be a _bad_ thing. You know it only takes 2 lbs of pressure to shove someone's nose bone into their brain?"

Well, he's listening _now!_ "Who knows that kind of thing?"

She sniffs. "A damn good doctor, that's who. Seriously, that face is the last place you want to get hit. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

She's throwing a clean shirt (where does she find these things?!) at his head as he shakes it no. "Great. Maybe you should wash that blood off and go relieve the Captain? He'll want to know more about her condition." She snatches up some paperwork that has clung miraculously to the bed frame.

"Well….thanks." Bohdi hasn't spent that much time with women until the last week. Pilot school had a decidedly male skew, and the demographics aren't that much better in the alliance forces. He's struck by her shocking ease with the unusual circumstances. It's a confusing juxtaposition of command and nonchalance.

"You just remember this when I'm taken hostage and held for ransom or whatever nonsense you people get into day in and day out." She's waving her hand in a dismissive gesture. Bohdi slumps away and feels that familiar sinking sensation. _Out of my league is right._

It's been a while since Cassian had to do all the hyper jump calculations himself, so he's relieved when the computer finds no faults. K2-SOs absence grinds on some nerve in his chest, but there's no time to dwell on it. He's not the first loss he's faced; he won't be the last.

It's time to take stock of his priorities, and there's a lot to be done. He'll need to brief this impromptu team on the happenings in Fest, needs to explain himself to Command, assess Jyn's condition, interrogate his newest crew woman, needs to plan resupply stops as needed which will require an assessment of what supplies they actually have. He wants that snake Vox brought up on charges.

He's anchored to the pilot's chair for now, so he starts the obvious. With Leia indisposed, Mothma off planet seeking aid for Alderaanians who were off planet, there is only one person in command left to trust. The holo-recorder flips open and Cassian begins speaking;

"General Draven. I have commandeered aircraft number TS5683 for the remaining Rogue One crew. As I anticipated to you recently, resentment against Jyn Erso and Bohdi Rook has boiled over into actions against them. It was my decision to proceed off planet ahead of our planned timeline. I made this decision after determining that a member of the medical staff, Doctor Vosix, had ill intentions for Jyn Erso. Another member of the medical staff, Doctor Ellie…..Ellie was able to determine the problem; Jyn was being given excessive sedatives intravenously. Without knowing how many sympathized with Vosix' feelings, it became necessary to take swift action. I will proceed to Fest. We should be able to secure any medical equipment Dr. Ellie needs there and complete our mission. Please contact me as necessary. Transmission over."

He had neglected to mention Bohdi's injuries, still missing the details of that encounter, but he sent the message anyway.

Ellie dropped into the co-pilot's seat. "What's your last name?" Cassian demanded.

She blinked. "Bass. I'm Dr. Ellie Bass. I was thinking you'd like an update on Jyn's status."

She doesn't sound terribly enthused to share. "Let's hear it."

She pats his arm reassuringly, and Cassian tries not to flinch away from the familiarity. "The news is very good, I promise! Her breathing is stable, and once she gets some fluids in her she'll be downright peachy. Gonna feel kriffing frosted when she wakes up though. Most of the symptoms of a hangover are dehydration related, and the rest are covered by being basically poisoned, the poor thing. I took the liberty of looking at what tests survived our jaunt through the halls, " she wags her eyebrows here playfully, but he's in no mood. "She's been patched up as well as could be hoped in such a short time. Apart from the overly-enthusiastic pain treatment, her care has been exemplary." There's a shrewd tilt to her eyebrows, and Cassian thinks that this woman would make a truly poor interrogator. "Dr Vosix was the top of our class back in the day. It's not like him to make such a grievous error."

Well that was fast. He couldn't hope to keep the reason for their hasty departure a secret, but it sounds like she has only just figured it out. Still….

"What are you implying?" He looks at her as casually as he can, keeps the intensity out of his expression. If she is part of this plot, and playing some kind of long con, she'll have to decide how to lead him astray here. Convince him that Vox acted alone, or that it was a genuine error?

"That it was on purpose obviously." Not a trace of deception. "Everybody has worked out who Jyn Erso is, and Vox will tell anyone who will listen about his parent's happy little home on Alderaan. It's not a difficult puzzle."

Cassian stares for another moment. "Your face is too honest."

Ellie laughs. "That's a new one. I like my face just the way it is, thank you. What's wrong with a little honesty?"

Cassian smiles back and turns back to the console. "It's the only thing keeping you from an illustrious career in intelligence."

"COMING UP!" Bohdi hollers from the bottom of the ladder.

"Let me down first!" Cassian calls, and jumps up.

"She'll be happy to see you." It's an obvious platitude, but it makes him smile anyway. He slides down the ladder with practiced ease and is quickly replaced by Bohdi, bearing some water canteens.

"Thirsty?" He asks shyly.

"Are you implying something, Pilot Rook?" She leers, and can't help but laugh when he flushes pink.

"I just figured with all your talking…" and she is truly stunned for a second. But he's grinning and trying not to and she hasn't had someone return a volley in forever.

So she snatches a bottle up and takes a swig, smiling all the while, smacking her lips in exaggerated satisfaction, "Point Rook," and Bohdi thinks maybe he's got better instincts than he knew.

Jyn slept on their way to Jedha, and even got some sleep on the way to Scarif. Cassian hadn't been watching her or anything, he's just always been a keen observer, and he couldn't help it if his brain stored certain facts. Like how she always sleeps on her left side, or the way her mouth hangs open like a sarlacc. He wishes he didn't know these things in particular right this moment. Her mouth is shut, and she lays on her back. There's an eerie stillness about her, so much so that Cassian actually, embarrassingly, _jumps_ when her head turns on the pillow. _Toward her left,_ he realizes with a grin.

This little glimpse of normalcy is just the thing he needs to bring him forward and lay a hand over her arm. The red dots are already receding and she is coming alive under his hand. Fingers flex slightly and she shifts. He misses K2-SO keenly, like a limb torn away, and he is sorry at the loss of Baze and Chirrut, but his gut clenches desperately at the thought of losing Jyn too. With every exhale and twist of her face she may as well be coming back to life; her death had been fact to him for 2 full days before Mothma had come to his bedside.

She is that much more to him for having been lost and then returned.

He has the sense to snag a canteen from the other room when her eyebrows pinch together in pain. When he comes back into the room she is already pushing herself up.

"EASY! Easy…" He wraps in arm around her shoulders to hold her upright and presses the canteen into her hands.

"Doctor said you'd feel like a nasty hangover. Water should help." She fumbles with the lid and he's pleased to see that her hands are steady.

She takes a long draw, coughing a little. "Why…." She croaks, "why am I hungover?"

"You were overdosed on pain meds."

Jyn nods once and grimaces at her stomach rolling. "Hate pain meds. Must kill pain meds." Cassian hiccups a surprised laugh and rubs a palm into her shoulder in solidarity.

Just drink the water." He encourages in a soothing, low voice.

"So sick of being in this bed, Cass," she grumps between more modest sips.

"I'm sick of you in that bed too." He agrees. "Doctor says you can get up whenever you feel less dizzy though."

She moans her despair. "I'll be here forever!" Cassian can't remember smiling this much.

 **AN: this is my favorite one so far.**


	4. A Bit of a Squeeze

Chapter 4

The part of Jyn that has never lied to herself knows there is trouble growing here that needs pruning. But Cassian's shoulder is warm and sturdy, like the side of a brick building on a sunny afternoon, and sitting up is such a lovely feeling. She's propped against him, at a 90 degree so that she can't see his face.

Her headache has retreated for now, and her stomach feels anchored to the steady arm pressing against her spine. Whenever she holds her cupped hand over her shoulder, he drops a section of a ration bar into it.

"So where are we headed?" It had taken some time to work the facts of their departure out of him, and she wasn't ready to push him anymore on that battlefield.

"A densely populated planet, Fest." When her fingers curl around the food, he strokes each finger over the tops of hers, from tip to knuckle. The touch is light and she can't see his face, but she knows its deliberate. She wishes he wouldn't do that; she's already so dizzy without his unpredictable affections.

"There are rumors of some new manufacturing activity for the Empire. We're being sent to gather information, make contact with some local factions and look for ways to disrupt the process."

"I'm assuming you have a plan?" Another bite in her palm. Another feather-light stroke. Her skin is buzzing.

"Pretty straightforward job. I'll infiltrate the factory as some sort of supplier. You and Bohdi will blend into the local color and see what you can find out about the patterns of local security. See if you can get in contact with resistance groups. Ellie will-"

"Who's Ellie?" Jyn's glad he can't see her full mouth. She remembers distantly her mother trying to train that habit out of her, before she became a guerilla fighter under Saw. Hadn't been much use for table manners after that.

"Our surprise medical officer. She helped me to…she came along to ensure your recovery."

She's stumbled back into sensitive territory. "How bad was it?"

"Not as bad as it could have been." He admits. "You were unresponsive. Completely. I'm surprised you are already so aware." She hasn't known him that long, but his soothing, serious manner belies a penchant for understatement. It's clear that his assessment was very grim.

This time when his hand passes over hers she snags it and grips it surely. It's awkward, with the crumbling bar between them and her back to him, but she squeezes a little anyway.

"I'm fine. You got me out just fine." He sighs, but it's the sound of a man letting go of something heavy.

Jyn pulls herself upright and is pleased to feel some of her old strength. She turns and slides up onto her feet. Cassian's hand hovers under her elbow, but she doesn't need it. She smiles up at him. "I'm going to try and find some real clothes." The baggy hospital gown is thin and not terribly useful. As if on cue, the hyperspace alarm whirs to life.

"One minute to exiting hyperspace. Bohdi will need me to guide him." He hesitates. "Be careful."

"Oh you know me! Timid as they come. Nothing to worry about!" She is already shuffling away.

The captain rolls his eyes, but moves quickly and darts up the ladder.

"Oh good. I was wondering if you had any opinions about how to identify our craft, or where we're going, or what's happening." Bohdi's hands are clenched tight on the controls.

"He's cranky," Ellie supplies, sliding around Cassian and aiming for the ladder.

"I'm not cranky, I'm-"

"Good luck!" she calls as she slides down.

"Make sure you and Jyn are strapped in for landing!" he calls after her.

He moves easily forward and takes her seat, his hands moving silently over the nav computer to prepare final approach.

"I'm not cranky." Bohdi mutters defensively.

"Did you have an argument?" He's interested to hear Bohdi's take on their newest compatriot. There hadn't been much time for bonding with the first Rogue One (it's only been days, he thinks) and now he is taking 3 unknowns into an undercover operation. It's important that he know all the gritty truths.

"She's funny. She's smart. She's nosey." And there it is. Something had cut Bohdi a little too close too early.

"I'm sure she was just guessing." Bohdi snorts.

"Some damn good guessing. Though I don't know where she gets off talking a big game, like she's ever been out in the field like this! She can't keep her mouth sh-"

There is some comedic aspect to the size of Bohdi's eyes when he looks over at his Captain, the tight line of his lips. Cassian tries to be kind.

"You'll do fine." He doesn't answer, but his hands loosen on the controls and his shoulders drop an inch or so. "These are the coordinates of our landing strip. Take it in nice and easy. It's not exactly going to be friendly." Cassian smiles coolly but doesn't elaborate further.

As they approach, it becomes increasingly obvious that the patch of abandoned concrete between crumbling buildings is their destination. "Captain?"

Cassian hasn't moved an inch. "Captain, I'm not sure we'll fit. It looks impossible"

"We will fit."

A fine tremor works its way through Bohdi's hands. "Maybe you should do this?" He is trying to keep the pleading out of his face.

Cassian is frowning. "No. Land the ship, Pilot Rook."

The shaking is visible. "I don't think I can," he can hardly say it for the shame.

"You were the one who flew the transport when Jyn and I were snatched off the beach, yes?" Bohdi jumps. They are getting close to the landing platform.

"You knew?"

Cassian scoffs. "Of course I knew. If you can fly a craft riding the wave of an explosion that size, if you can fly into it to save 2 people, than you can do this too."

His tone is so firm, so decisive that Bohdi feels himself believing it. He falls back on the familiar instincts. He's done this a thousand times. He's landed bigger ships before. He's going to be a fighter pilot. The approach is smooth, and he pulls the throttle tight; just enough to stay up, not so much that they'll get burning lift as the jet stream hits the ground.

Then it all goes wrong. The left wing tip catches just slightly on a balcony. It crumbles quickly, but the ship jerks oddly, and the engines are a little off and they apply a _twist,_ and the whole damn bucket is off center, and Bohdi grabs tight and jerks just so and the whole craft bounces once on the landing gear, and then miraculously settles in whorls of dust.

He can't help himself, throwing a triumphant fist in the air. A whoop of joy dies on his tongue though when he looks out of the cockpit. From every window, muzzles bristle like a porcupine. He counts 60, easy, and a quick turn assures him they are quite utterly surrounded.

Cassian's has the gall to smirk at him. "Maybe we don't' quite fit." He admits. Bohdi's jaw drops.

He turns to climb down, and Bohdi snaps off the engines and reluctantly follows.

"We're completely surrounded, we need to take off." Jyn is ducked below a window, hand on a blaster that Bohdi is unfamiliar with.

"Put that down, and just sit for a minute." Cassian walks to the ramp and pushes it open without preamble.

Jyn gasps and jumps up, but she freezes under the captain's glare. "Put. That. Down." Slowly, reluctantly, the barrel drops down by her side. Cassian strolls out of the ship with all the confidence of the Emperor himself.

He cups his hand around his mouth. "Hilton, you'd better get those sights off my ship before I give you something to point a gun at!"

A head pops up from one of the first floor windows.

"Fulcrum?!" The voice is boyish and doesn't match the burly man that leaps nimbly out and rushes headlong at him.

Jyn's gun is halfway up again but he's already scooped Cassian up in a bear hug.

"Fulcrum you little bastard! Where have you been?"

"Put me down!" Was he….blushing? Bohdi smiles, and when he looks at Jyn she is smiling back at him. Her expression is positively vicious. Ellie stands back, openly laughing.

"And who are your friends?" The giant is coming at them now and all the mischief bleeds instantly from her expression. Cassian steps up quickly, "Jyn, Bohdi and Ellie, please, this is Hilton."

The great paw of the man dwarfs the hands of each lady in turn. When he looks at Bohdi, the man leans forward a bit, squinting dramatically. "I can barely see this one. We'll need to put some meat on your bones! Otherwise they'll have nothing to shoot."

Bohdi's smile is frail. "Whatever you say. You say eat, I say how much!" He laughs weakly.

The cheerful smack to his shoulder sends him reeling and Hilton laughs loudly. "Maybe he is big enough as it is, hmm? Well, follow me!" He scruffs Cassian firmly and leads them away. The 30 or so men and women that have appeared around them aren't brandishing their guns anymore, but the remaining crew falls quickly into step.

 **AN: I'm kind of starting to hate this. I don't know what's wrong with it. Any suggestions? How's the pace, the plot, the characters? How was your day? What's your favorite color? (Mine's green.)**


	5. A Penchant for Drama

**Chapter 5**

Upwards of 90% of the surface of Fest is urban. Once a booming metropolis of industry, a civil war with its sister planet, warring factions, and the militaristic rule of imperial force has transformed the sprawl into gang lands. Great plumes of factory smoke rise in the smoggy distance, but Hilton's tribe has built a place for themselves in the basement of decrepit, abandoned buildings. The structure they've developed beneath the streets is shockingly evolved. The only evidence of their presence above ground are the gardens, carefully cultivated to appear wild. Surely as the sun rising, Nature has come to reclaim lost ground.

The meal is simple, entirely vegetarian, and Jyn attacks it with gusto. Here in the dimly lit halls of the hideout, the sheer magnitude of the operation becomes obvious. 4 tables span the entire length of the hall, cluttered with chairs. There doesn't seem to be any familial structure; groups clump together by age, adults chatting pleasantly over empty plates, children tussling in and around the furniture.

Bohdi is red as a cherry. Ellie hangs comfortably on his arm, the picture of ease, smiling at the crowd of teenage boys that have gathered around to investigate the newcomers. Jyn smiles into her plate and keeps her head down across the table. _Better him than me._

"What happened to your face?" the interrogation continues. This boy, Chan, seems to be the ring leader of the operation. He looks remarkably like Chirrut; Jyn wishes she could ask where he came from, wishes she'd asked Chirrut when she still had time.

Bohdi fumbles for a moment. "I….my nose got broken."

"Two thugs attacked him," Ellie corrects primly. "He was guarding the ship, and they decided to pick a fight."

The boys collectively lean forward, and Bohdi leans just as far back.

"Were they trying to steal it?"

"Were they big?"

"Were you all alone?"

"Did you fight them? Did you win?!"

Bohdi is so flustered he can't pick a question, so Ellie chimes in again. "They just wanted to beat Bohdi up. He's very famous where we come from you see, and they thought it would make them look cool. They thought because they were big guys, and they were together, they could take him."

The boys are enraptured. Jyn doesn't think she has ever seen that shade of purple on a person's face before.

~! ~! ~! ~! ~! ~!

Hilton drops into the corner seat next to Cassian. "What a surprise." He deadpans. "Cassian, tucked into the darkest corner of the room."

Cassian nods. "I never did get used to this much noise. It's easier to keep an eye on things from here." He is leaned back, picking occasionally at his plate. The untrained eye would place him somewhere between sullen and bored, but Hilton can see the quick flicker of eyes moving under the dark dash of his brow. The captain is alert, trying to keep track of all the action around him.

"Are you worried about your pretty ladies surrounded by all those dashing young men?" He guesses.

Cassian frowns for a moment. Jyn is masterful in her deflections; whenever one of the young men tries to sneak a hand around her shoulder she suddenly needs to lean far away to mumble a joke to another of the group. When one of the bolder ones tries to rest his hand on her knee, she leans forward into the way, unexpectedly realizing her shoe needs tying. She had mentioned that she was 15 when Saw left her. Old enough that she would already be honing these skills. And the intervening years, a woman without a home, as beautiful as she is, and with no back up? No, Jyn requires no protection from the advances of inexperienced boys.

Ellie, he notes, has taken a more classical approach. She is sprawled almost entirely across Bohdi at this point. He doesn't think the pilot realizes he is being used to send a message, too flustered by the rather exaggerated story Ellie is spinning. It's bad enough that she wasn't even there to see the fight…

"You should have seen their faces! Bohdi just looked right at them, spitting blood from his nose. 'I'll give you one more try, seeing as there are two of you,' he says!" Ellie crows in a passable imitation of Bohdi's voice. Her volume drops back down into the general roar of the hall, but he can see that she is miming fearsome, artless punches. The pilot's protests are going completely unheeded, the young men totally absorbed in the heroics the pretty doctor describes with zest.

Cassian turns back to Hilton with a raised eyebrow, and the big man grins wryly. "Seems they've got it all well in hand." He turns fully toward him and levels an over-played expression of curiousity.

"Now, it's time you tell me what has brought you back to our humble hide out. You never come back here without some nefarious purpose."

Cassian returns Hilton's full attention. "You've got me. We're here because of some rumors about a new weapons facility being built. The messenger seemed to think it was terribly urgent. There's almost no details though; I've no idea what they are building, or why it seems to be so important. My contact appears to have fallen off the map as well." Cassian lets some shrewdness leak into his voice. "Strange, that. My contact never sends encrypted messages like this one, and seems to have disappeared."

Hilton's face is damningly blank. "That is strange. Perhaps he has been recruited away by someone, like you so often do in my ranks?" He waits for a moment. "I can ask around if you like…?"

It takes a lot of effort not to roll his eyes. "No need. Why don't you just tell me what you might know about this new manufacturing operation?"

"Ah, well that I can do!" He's all smiles now; it's easy to forget, if you haven't seen him in action, that this is a remarkably dangerous man. "I think I do know a little something now that you mention it. The facility is being built in one of the old hangers. It's been under construction for nearly 6 months now, and looks about ready to go operational. What is very queer about it though, and there are a few things you know, that is for one" he holds up a finger here, always talking with his hands, "the whole place is as secure as the Emperor's palace. Two, "another flourish of a finger, "no locals have been hired onto the site, but several crew transports have arrived, and haven't left. Three," Hilton is missing most of his ring finger, so he raises a thumb instead, "there has been no announcement to the public. Now this would make sense, seeing as they cannot brag about bringing in new jobs for the public when the public has not been hired. But it seems like an awfully big expense to bring in, feed, and house enough folks to run a factory like that, all while the good citizens of Fest starve." Hilton sneers here, a small glimpse of his real thoughts. Anyone who has spent time on Fest knows that the resilient citizenship has never let the commerce fall off on their planet. They cannot arrest the entire population, after all. Business simply involves more guns now.

Cassian takes all this in attentively. Across the hall, Jyn has taken over the story telling. She is gesturing at Bohdi, and he catches snippets of her low voice. She leans in close to the table, and even from behind her he can tell that she has the attention of the entire table. "They burst open the door… got a couple shots off to distract them… kept climbing…" there's a collective gasp and Jyn lets the moment drag for a second. A couple of the boys glance around for a second, until one spots him. A ripple of shoulder smacking and head turning ripples through the boys and Cassian realizes with unsettling certainty that Jyn is telling the story of Scarif, and that she has made him out to be some kind of hero. The expressions are all unadulterated awe. They snap around again when Jyn mercifully launches back into the story.

"I can see why it seems suspicious." Cassian finally replies. "I'd like to get into the building. I'm planning to hijack one of the deliveries of supplies. I assume they are still using human pilots?"

"They are," Hilton says. "We've had some surveillance on the place. I can take you up there tomorrow and we can scope it out if you'd like."

Cassian considers for a moment. "Your help is never free Hilton, I know that. I'd rather you took Jyn out there. I need to follow up on a few things, and I don't want my face on any security footage in case they are watching the lines closely. I can run an operation for you tomorrow if you'd like?"

Hilton shakes his head. "It would be better if you prepare yourself. I'll have Tano take Jyn. If I can have my pick, we are in need of some medical help more than anything else." He looks pointedly at Ellie.

Cassian readily agrees. "She wasn't supposed to be with us, I was still figuring out how to use her anyway. Bohdi will help me on my runs, Ellie can help with your clinic, and Tano will take Jyn out to scope the supply lines. She'll need to show her the ropes."

Hilton laughs broadly, "A newbie eh? Should some hazing be in order? Are we breaking in fresh leather?"

Cassian pauses thoughtfully. "I'd just like to see how she does with it. If she likes it."

~! ~ !~! ~! ~! ~!

"We never would have made it out of the blast radius with any other pilot." Jyn assures them. "We're lucky he is on our side!" She leaves out that this is a fairly recent development; Cassian hasn't made it clear how much they should trust these people. "Bohdi is gonna be one of the best fighter pilots for the Alliance." She leans back then and smiles as the boys take the cue and turn wonderingly in the pilot's direction. Ellie is positively beaming at her, happy to have an ally in her mischief. Jyn had always been good at storytelling; a natural flair for timing combined with years of currying favor with just her smile and personality has made her into a virtuoso.

"It's really not like that." Bohdi is going to have a bald spot if he keeps scratching at the back of his head so vigorously. "I fly transports right now. Big ships."

One of the youngest boys, part of the playful children that had stopped tussling long enough to hear the story, pipes up. "Is that why you had to land that big old ship on the helo platform?"

Somehow the boys' eyes get even wider. "You landed a full sized transport on the platform!?" One of the teens shouts incredulously. The sizeable crowd erupts in excited whispering, comparing sizes and exaggerating distances.

Bohdi looks desperate, "it's hardly a full-sized transport!" he protests. "I've flown way bigger!"

The circle falls silent for a second and Bohdi starts to relax, but Ellie has turned to him with a cheshire smile.

"Even bigger!?" The youngest shouts, and the boys all chime in with more improbably measurements. Bohdi's head drops in defeat.

 **AN: I've got the rest of the story blocked out. It'll probably come to be 12 or so chapters. It will eventually be an M I think. Is that a deal breaker for anybody? I'll be traveling this weekend so I dont think I'll be able to keep up the chapter-per-day pace, but I'll be back on it next week.**


	6. The Hair of the Under Dog that Bit You

**Chapter 6 : The Hair of the Under Dog**

Tano, it turns out, is an amazon of a woman. Sprawled out in the crumbling remains of an apartment building a few blocks from the factory, Jyn taps an impatient rhythm with her fingers. Tano frowns.

"No tapping." She mutters, still peering intently through the telescopic site in front of her. Jyn has been in plenty of fights, and almost always with people bigger than her, but she would think twice about challenging Tano.

She is 6 feet of pure muscle, about 10 years her senior and the peak of physical fitness. Jyn would be well and truly wary of her if she wasn't such a patient teacher. "Pen ready, Erso. Aircraft is an… imperial light freighter. A TL-1800, 2nd series. Cargo bay closed, high burn on the lift thrusters. She's fully loaded down with something. Single human pilot. Remember to clock the time of day." Jyn dutifully scribbles down the details. The deep gouge in her side feels tight from laying still so long. Tano leans back a little to glance at her, furrowing her brow. "The TL-1800… that's an imperial security freighter. It transports droids, weapons, that kind of thing." Her lips twist thoughtfully. "The place is a fortress. It makes sense that there would be more layers to the security, I suppose."

" But the TL-1800 is designed for radar shielding. If they are bringing in sensitive cargo, well, that's how I'd do it." Jyn has found the criminal constituency and the rebellious population to be exceedingly similar. On the rare occasion she has been working as a student for someone she admires, it's been a man, but that DOESN'T MEAN she feels the need to impress Tano, need some kind of approval from this woman. She _doesn't._

Tano smiles and presses her eye back to the scope. "Good point." Jyn is certain the smile on her face is purely operational, a polite response. She couldn't care less if this woman thinks she is smart or well informed. She bets her mother's spirit is laughing at her somewhere.

Tano twists off her stomach and crosses her legs. "Take a turn on the scope. My eyes need a break."

Jyn shuffles over, carefully, pulling her notebook with her. Everything hurts more than it did before. It's been 6 days since she was shot, since she threw her life at the feet of the future of the universe in honor of her father, 6 days since the universe spit her back out, bloodied, bruised and still breathing. She wishes Ellie had been less sparing with the pain patches before releasing her for the day.

Another ship burns through the approach path, and Jyn peers through the scope to read the panel on the side, jotting down another line of notes. "So if you've never done surveillance, why did Fulcrum send you out here?" Jyn uses the excuse of checking and logging the time to stall. Cassian had reviewed with them last night the lines between information that could be shared and what could cause danger.

"I'm a pretty new recruit. I think the idea is that I could start getting my feet wet without straining my injuries. Cass… Fulcrum is supposed to be the best. They must figure I can only do so much damage under his command." The nickname sounds odd to her ears.

"Of course he's the best." Tano lifts her hand off her eyes and squints at Jyn. "I've been waiting for the interrogation."

Jyn is grateful for the scope as an excuse to avoid eye contact. "I make it a point to not talk about boys when I meet another woman of action. Seems… counter productive." It's not the right word, but Tano nods knowingly anyway.

"We'll consider it recon then. A training exercise. Let's see what you know about interrogating, hmm? I'm sure you have questions."

Jyn had _thousands._

"How'd you meet him?"

Tano laughs. "Through Hilton. Back in the day Hilton and I led the early stages of our current operation. We were kids then, orphans. We had set up something of a tribe for the other orphans in the region, and we all worked together, looked out for the little ones and taught them how to get what they needed. Fulcrum was 6 when we got him. He was always that serious, by the way. I think it's why he got snatched up so quickly."

"Snatched up?"

"Yeah, by some general of the republic. I don't remember his real name; he came by every once in a while and would give us food and supplies. Asked lots of questions, see if anyone wanted to go with him to fight the Empire. I only remember our nickname for him; General Dribbles."

Jyn can't help laughing at that, even with the somber reality; Draven recruited children. Cassian had been a child soldier.

"Anyway, he was happy to go with him. Fulcrum was angry. When he came back to visit later, it came out that his dad died in one of the protests during the early days of imperial occupation. Most of us, we were orphaned by cross fire or street violence or sickness or poverty. Fulcrum had someone to blame. He would come back through though, sometimes for months at a time. He helped Hilton and I turn things into a respectable operation. And he would take the real trouble cases with him. "

At Jyn's questioning glance, Tano elaborated. "The angry kids. Like he was. I guess he figured that the Rebellion could give them something to be angry about; somewhere to put it all."

Jyn is quiet for a minute. "You make interrogation seem pretty easy."

"Well, it's your first time and all!" Tano says with a smile. "Whats next?"

"Why the nickname Fulcrum?"

"Do you know what that word means?" Jyn shakes her head. "Fulcrum is the point around which a platform rotates. The heavier side normally wins, but the fulcrum can change that. If it's closer to one side or the other, it changes the outcome. Hilton nicknamed him Fulcrum, because if there was a fight or something, you could always find Cassian right in the middle of it."

"And the side he would pick usually won?"

"Ah, no." Tano looks wistful. "The thing is, the side closer to the fulcrum has a harder time of things. The metaphor still works though. Fulcrum had a tendency to pick the underdog. He got his ass kicked a lot for it."

Jyn mulls that over. It's quiet up here, despite the surreptitious business going on in the black market below them, the strange imperial operations a few buildings away. She thinks about the ache in her side, about her father in his gun scope _(but I didn't!) ,_ about Cassian's hand on her shoulder _(Welcome home),_ about the brave, pensive crowd standing in the bay of Rogue One (' _and the next, until we win or the chances are spent')_ and thinks about really good coffee, a balance of bitterness and warmth.

"He still does that," she grins.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!

Bohdi drops armfuls of bags wearily onto the table. "I found everything you asked for. It took forever. I've walked far enough today that if someone said I'd circled the whole planet, I'd be surprised it was just once."

Ellie glances at the bags, smiles blandly and turns back to the arm she is carefully stitching closed. "Thanks."

"Thanks?! Thanks. THANKS she says," he turns dramatically to a little girl, gesturing for support, but she only blinks at him. "You know there are no real markets in this district right?" He swings back toward Ellie, who is showing a captive audience of her new acolytes how to use their ring fingers to ensure perfectly straight, even stitches. "Credits mean nothing. Everything is bartering, which means you have to find out that the bacta vendor is in need of linens, and the linen guy broke his walking stick and needs a new one, and the woman who carves the walking sticks just wants me to carry her things for her while she shops for _hours…"_ he tapers off when he realizes Ellie isn't listening, and turns back to unpack the bags with a huff. He's folding the bags neatly, with perhaps more force than necessary, by the time he hears Ellie wrapping up her lesson. He spins around, ready to try again to pick the fight he's been dying for and-

Something impossibly soft and warm is touching his cheek. Her lips. A hand presses into his chest for balance, and is he on fire? He might be on fire, his heart is pounding like it's on fire. Ellie drops back on her heels.

"Thanks." She repeats. A cool guy would say something smooth here. They would sneer something confident and witty and they would close their mouths, _close your mouth!_ And they would walk out as casually as ever, and they'd probably have a leather jacket or something…

But Bohdi is just thinking about how for that split second she smelled kind of sweet. Nothing has been sweet, or nice, nothing has been quite so colorful as it is around her, not since Scarif. The guilt that's hounded his heels, that makes the world a little grayer and everything taste a little like ash, it recedes some in the face of her vitality. He wants desperately to tell her this, to grip her by the shoulders and _shake_ her, so that maybe she can understand how much power she has taken into her hands with her easy confidence, with her guileless acceptance.

"Y-yeah. Okay. Did you need anything else?" That's not exactly what he would have chosen, given more time, but Ellie smiles.

"I could use some lunch actually. Do you remember how to get to the caf? I'm like a newborn in all this cityscape, it's a miracle I found this place this morning." He nods eagerly, and Ellie slips her hand through his arm to squeeze the inside of his elbow.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!

 _Message received. Flight log has been post-dated to approve departure. Medic Vosix in custody. No apparent compatriots. Will require testimony for trial upon your return. Force be with you. GD_

Cassian frowns at the com and snaps it closed. A trial is the last thing they need. For being an insurgency, secrets are very poorly kept among the rebels. A high-ranking member of the Alliance being punished for acting against a recent recruit, with familial ties to the Death Star? That kind of rumor will stir up sentiments best left to cool with time. He needs to focus on the current operation, but his subconscious churns away at the possible repercussions that could be coming when they return to base the whole walk back to his bunk. The notebook Jyn has left full of the delivery logs and other observations is a welcome distraction, even with her rather impertinent notes in the margin. ( _Intel is so boring. How could anyone do this for 20 years? No wonder you're such a lunatic. Is Tano part wookie? Don't show this to her.)_ He lays back on the cot and delves into the comforting familiarity of sifting through data.

 **AN: Enjoy the fluffiness, because it's about to get real. Next chapter might take a few days. Action sequences take a little more time to write and I'll be on the road.**

 **Thank you sincerely for the reviews. TortoiseTheStoryteller in particular helped me realize what I wasn't liking about this story; the fallout from Scarif has been pretty glossed over, both physically and mentally. I'll try not to overcorrect.**


	7. She's Got the Greater Goods

**Chapter 7:She's Got the Greater Goods**

"Everyone is in position?" The radio crackles to life.

"R-2 in place, over." Jyn's voice is low but calm.

"R-3 in place, over." Bohdi's voice is tight with tension. It sounds high over the narrow band of the radio frequency.

"You ain't my boss, Fulcrum. I've got my shit covered." Hilton sounds gleeful. The man rarely gets to pull off stunts anymore.

In the distance, Cassian hears the whine of a low-flying engine. It had taken 2 days of waiting for the perfect conditions, but the thick cumulus clouds were forcing the delivery spacecraft into low altitudes.

"They've entered sight line." He peers through the scope. "It's a TL-1800, this is it."

Below the surface street, a rumble has started. The distant ship cruised into view, buzzing low over the city streets.

The rumble picks up, starts to move it's epicenter. The aircraft seems to move quicker as it approaches, accelerating through the space above. The rumble follows.

Midway down the street a powerful hovercar ascends from one of the concealed tunnels. The low noise of it roars to full volume in the open air. No one would be heard for this next part he knew. Cassian mounts swiftly onto his hoverbike and follows along the side street.

In the gaps between buildings flying by, he watchs Bohdi center the craft under the passenger side of the cockpit. He catches glimpses of Hilton creeping out onto the hood of the car, crouched and with one hand gripping the window for balance.

He misses the jump itself, instead seeing the moment of hang time as Hilton's fingers reach for the step at the driver's door. Bohdi is already swinging low, ready to disappear back into the underground passageway another block ahead. _Just in time_ Cassian thinks sourly. Hilton's confidence that he could make the jump in that time had been a point of contention.

Distantly he can hear Jyn shouting something into the headpiece. The engine noise changes quite suddenly. Down an alley, he sees that the transporter is falling behind, slowing. Cassian cuts down the next alley and clears the block onto the next street just as the transporter comes to a wobbly landing.

Jyn comes running up the next street, tools in hand. Hilton is already searching the unconscious pilot, making a triumphant noise when he pulls a badge loose from under his shirt. The gray flight suit shows some red spots over the right shoulder.

Cassian examines the twisted metal where the door handle had been, then looks up at Hilton's grinning face. Casually, he swings it closed, eyebrow raised as the damaged latch bounces ineffectually back open. Hilton's expression doesn't change. "You said to be fast. You didn't say anything about neat." Cassian wordlessly skirts around him to begin stripping away his own clothes and don the uniform of the pilot. Hilton disappears around the corner. His shoulder pulls painfully as he shrugs into it.

When he's done, Cassian leans out of the door. Jyn is slouched over the badge, heat gun pointed at the replacement photo that is sealing over its face. "I thought you said you could do this quickly?"

Jyn doesn't react. "Almost done." After another second the heat gun flips off, and Jyn runs a thumb gently over the face. She smiles, and walks up to him, hovering in the door. "Done. What's my time?"

"Nearly 4 minutes."

"See?" She grins. "Not bad at all."

Cassian feels his ire rise. "It's too long. That kind of delay will be noticeable."

The smile drops off Jyn's face. "It's plenty fast; don't take your nerves out on me." The anger drops away just as quickly as she offers him the badge. "Be careful. Walk slow, the limp is more noticeable when you're moving fast. " She swipes a thumb idly at a blood spot on his collar, and she looks at the unconscious imperialist. "What do we do with him?"

Behind her, Hilton raises an eyebrow. "He'll have to stay close. We'll need him again, after." Cassian's tone is dismissive, but he's watching her attentively and it hits her like a thunderbolt. Because he's seen Hilton's face, because the Empire can't know the true intentions of this operation, or who was involved, because there is only way to silence someone….

 _Oh._ Cassian reaches for her arm, but she takes a quick step back. "No, no it's okay. We'll…I'm sure we can handle it. It's okay. Just go." Cassian takes another step forward, but Hilton interrupts.

"Time's ticking, Fulcrum. Officially 4 minutes."

Cassian watches Hilton hook a hand in the man's undershirt and drag him effortlessly away. Jyn walks backward a few steps watching him too, before turning to follow.

Cassian brings the ship up into the air and glides back into the approach path Jyn had observed before.

In his ear, Bohdi calls over the radio. "How'd we do?" The pilot seems deliberately indifferent to radio etiquette and it graves on Cassian's nerves. He is gearing up to really dress him down when Jyn beats him to it. "Took 4 minutes, over." Radio signals degrade a lot of the nuance of human voice, but there is _something_ in her tone.

"Wow! That's not bad at all."

Cassian can feel his pulse in his temple. "Keep the lines clear. Over and out."

Some of the tension retreats; he misses Kaytoo more than ever, his predictability and the years of being honed into one another.

The captain takes a deep, even breath, reads his new badge to learn the name of his new self; a freshly minted pilot called Naaman Barrows. A common name out here; his accent will lend credence. He plucks the transceiver from his ear and drops it in a breast pocket as the factory comes into view.

Captain Andor goes into the back of his mind, and Naaman Barrows steps up.

The security droid, were it capable, would likely have frowned at the slow swing of the unlatchable door as Cassian brought the transport to a halt before him.

"Identify." It intones instead.

Just as Bohdi had instructed, Naaman Barrows recites each fact. His name, the current star date, the trip origin, and the unit number of the aircraft. Naaman produces his badge, and does a poor job of hiding his nerves. He is still very new to this job.

The droid returns the badge and stands still as it accesses its memory banks. "You are 4 minutes late."

Barrows only smiles sheepishly, "We organic matter types occasionally have delays… the call of nature and all."

The security droid indicates the map to its side. "Bring the transport to delivery pad 4. Unloading will begin immediately."

Barrows salutes awkwardly and brings the transport back up to glide along the building toward the pad.

There are no windows, and very few doors. There is no real proof, but some subconscious part of him can tell the walls are very thick.

On the pad, several droids begin appearing from the single open doorway. Naaman walks dutifully to the transports side door and swings it open with practiced ease. Inside, rows on rows of metal ingots are stacked neatly and strapped down. As Bohdi had expected, the papers are hanging securely from a beam by the door. He plucks them down and, turning, presents them to the tall droid approaching him. "You may go to the rest area while the transport is unloaded."

Naaman shrinks in embarrassment. "And which way…?" The droid points firmly toward the door, and Barrows scurries into it. He notices as he passes through that indeed the walls are over a foot thick.

There's a bench a little to the left of the door, but a quick glance around shows him that he is in the presence of a few droids. They have not been gifted with intelligence, and so he moves swiftly further into the factory. The space is enormous, lines of machinery with conveyors between. He can't possibly hope to find the needle in this haystack. He does a slow circle….there! A narrow doorway, and desks behind it.

He's grateful that the room is empty. Rows on rows of computer banks; across the wall the words "Research Department" emit a soft glow. To his right is another doorway leading into a lab space.

He places the transceiver back in his ear. "Jyn, over." He hisses.

"I'm here, over."

He sits down for a second and watches as the screen lights up when he flips the power switch.

"I have found a computer bank. How do I connect this device you gave me? Over."

Jyn walks him tersely through the connection, and Cassian leaves it plugged in while she works remotely.

The lab space is sparse and impeccably clean; it's likely no one has been using it yet. 3 large crates line the back wall, and he snags the labels to read them.

 _RETROVIRUS. EXTREME CAUTION._

A shipping label rests on top of the box and without thinking he snags one and folds it neatly into a back pocket.

It's as he's reaching the computers and plucking the device free that things start to go wrong.

"What are you doing in here?"

It's Cassian in control again, spinning to confront this new threat, hand falling instinctively to his blaster. Pain wrenches up his weak leg and the answering spasm of his hand sends the weapon skittering across the floor. The pain slows him enough to take a look at the new intruder.

The Stormtrooper's posture looks more concerned than aggressive. His blaster rests forgotten against his league. He takes 2 steps forward and Cassian braces for a fight, but then the trooper bends to scoop up the dropped gun. He lifts his helmet away with his other hand.

"Are you alright?" The man can't be older than 20, with a clean-shaven face and a concerned tightness to his brow.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just a sports injury. That's how you end up flying transporters, right?" Cassian recedes again. Naaman accepts the blaster proferred to him.

"Right, right. Well I'm glad I found you. El-Es, the lead droid, seemed to think you'd gotten yourself lost."

"I did," Barrows scratches his head in discomfort. "Just looking for some water."

The trooper smiles brightly. "Well I need to show you back. They've finished unloading."

Behind his back, he snags Jyn's remote connect from the bank and follows the trooper out.

"I'm Peter." He says suddenly. "Been stationed here about a month. There's only 3 'ganics here so far. The other 2 are twi'leks though, and the way they swing their lekku back and forth you just know they are talking about you right to your face. It's good to see a fellow human."

When he offers his hand, Naaman takes it. "Naaman Barrows. Friends call me Barman."

"Sounds like you know how to have fun!" Peter enthuses. "When everyone is back here for the big celebration you'll have to show me how you earned the title."

"Big celebration?"

"Oh yeah," Peter nods. "The whole operation is starting up in 3 days and they are bringing the whole research team in. All of the big chiefs will be there too. I mean, nobodies like you and me won't get to talk to them or anything, but I hear a few Moff's are coming!"

"Well in that case," Naaman smiles, trying to keep his pulse steady. "I'll have to bring along some of the Corellian gin that I've been known for, and maybe I can get us face time."

Peter grins. They clear the doorway. "Nice to meet you Bar-man. I'll hold you to that!" Peter hands him off to the LS unit and retreats into the door.

"The quality of the shipment was excellent. We found only one damaged unit." The droid summarizes. He hands one of the ingots over and then twists the end. He watches in surprise as a seam appears, and then threads, on the smooth metal. A canister it would seem. When he leans it toward him to peer down, he's amazed to see trays of glass tubes filled with an eery blue liquid, layers on layers. 3 tubes are broken on the top layer.

"Please return this to the synthesizing facility for safe disposal." The droid surrenders a swathe of papers, and Barrows fastens the lid back in place and secures each item in place in the rear of the craft.

Once outside the gate, Cassian relaxes and presses the radio com. "I'm on return flight. We'll rendez-vous about 6 blocks south of the original departure. Over."

"Copy, kid." Hilton replies.

Jyn smiles weakly when he jumps out of the broken door and hands over 2 bags. "I was thinking a robbery." She slips into the ship and starts yanking at panels, prying them away and scavenging valuable components with suspicious familiarity. It's likely she hadn't reached far into her history for this plan. Hilton has the young pilot firmly tethered and gagged, urging him forward by the back of his shirt. Cassian wishes he was still unconscious.

"In the pilot's seat, I think." Hilton says quietly. He's grateful that they are old men now, that they find no vengeful pleasure in this task.

Cassian stows the paperwork, canister and data-transfer device into one of the bags, then follows Jyn's lead, shoving anything that looks valuable into the other haphazardly. Hilton appears again around the corner and hands him the stack of his own clothes. Once he's changed, Cassian walks back into the cockpit.

Jyn is standing on the passenger's side, looking at their prisoner. Her expression is blank.

"I've got it." Cassian tells her, but she doesn't leave. He sighs and begins his ritual.

This is for the rebellion. More lives will be extinguished by tyranny, and more wickedness will rule this universe than he can spare by letting this man live. The math is simple. The choice is not his; he is an instrument of good. A righteous cause makes unrighteous men.

He raises his blaster to the boy's forehead, but he does not feel the same detachment. Naaman's face, the real Naaman, transforms into Peter, the hapless boy just happy for a friend. HE looks like Bohdi too, who could very well have been the man in that seat if not for the interference of Galen Erso.

A red shower explodes from the side of his head and he slumps. Cassian looks at Jyn in amazement.

She is steady as a rock behind the muzzle, meeting his eye, but her face is drawn and her pallor is sickly. "For the greater good, right?" She's asking a different question, and he can see the plea in her eyes.

"Right." He assures, and he hoists her bags onto her shoulders, takes up his own, and grabs her hand to tug her out into the street. Just so she knows he is still willing to touch her.

Hilton leads the way into the tunnels.

 **AN: Miami was a lovely vacation. I hope you don't mind the artistic license I took here with having Cass call himself Naaman internally. Cassian is such an experienced spy, I figured he has to have methodical ways of getting into and staying into character without losing himself in the process. I imagine that seeing them as separate personalities, removing myself from the things I'm doing, would be the best way I could find for the dark things that being undercover would require. His specialties include assassination, after all.**

 **I know canonically Fulcrum is actually a division of the rebellion etc, but I took some liberties. I debated having a whole section where Cassian says Tano is a bit of a historical revisionist, and explaining it to Jyn, but it seems a waste of effort.**

 **Please let me know what you think! I'll be back on regular (daily) posting! This one's extra long as an apology.**


	8. The Moral High Ground Wars

**Chapter 8: The Moral High Ground Wars**

"Some of the plans I pulled off the computer system are designs for modified crop dusters." Jyn finally breaks the silence. "Custom aerosol canisters for dispersed drops. High altitude. They have to be customized; most chemical drop operations are done at low altitudes for better control of where everything ends up."

"That paints a pretty clear picture." Hilton comments coolly.

Bohdi is shaking his head. "This is a whole new level of moral bankruptcy. I know that they've done some awful things, but no one has resorted to biological warfare in nearly 3000 years."

"They have a planet killer. They have plans for aerosol dispensers. They have a factory receiving shipments of a custom made virus. It takes no great leap of logic to understand what we are dealing with." Cassian looks at each face, appraising their reactions. Only Hilton looks back at him. "We have to destroy that factory."

"We'd endanger the whole planet." Ellie disagrees. "You said yourself how many of those canisters were in only one shipment, and there have been shipments arriving for months. The N562RK virus is not only incredibly dangerous, but it's resilient. It's one of the few that can be transmitted in the air. And if the notes you recovered are accurate, this strain is even more resilient and deadly."

"Why are they creating it then? They can't possibly hope to control this once it gets out. What's the point of ruling an empty universe?" Bohdi still can't wrap his mind around this. Cassian envies his innocence.

"We have a suspicion about that." Ellie admits quietly, glancing at Jyn, who nods gravely. "There are vaccinations and treatments for the N562RK virus already in existence. This custom strain could, reasonably, be combated. The great danger is simply that vaccinations are hard to create. It requires time, and testing, and advanced scientific facilities. The kinds of things that the Empire has, and that the Alliance doesn't. The virus would spread quickly on whatever planet it was introduced. And it would get off world just as easily, as people tried to escape the outbreak. It could be spread across the far reaches of space. It could even reach the Alliance, if they dropped it on a planet with known rebel activity. And then, after a reasonable wait, as citizens die and cry out for help and focus on surviving instead of fighting, the Empire comes up with a cure. And planets teetering on the brink, they have to make the obvious choice. Meanwhile, the Alliance dies off faster than it can confront the problem. Even after a cure is introduced, the whole process could be repeated with a new strain. And everyone starts thinking how fortunate they are to be beneficiaries of the Empire's resources."

The room is cold. "But now we have the information right? "Bohdi gestures to the stack of paper in front of her. "If we send it now, we can work out a vaccine. And we can expose the Empire for planning this."

"We don't have the equipment for it, or the budget, or the expertise. It would take much longer than 6 months for us to create a cure, and they are going to be producing faster than that. If the citizenship knows, the only think that changes is they are motivated by fear instead of gratitude."

"What do you suggest, then?" Hilton asks. Cassian likes that about him; always to the point, focused on a solution.

"We have to seal that factory closed forever." Jyn says firmly.

"It won't be enough. We have to make it so that no one attempts to get inside too. It has to be untouchable. And we have to make sure anyone who knows how to make another virus is wiped out. Then we'll have the time to create the vaccine." Cassian says quietly. His calculating mind had already suggested the answer before now. He waits patiently for the implications to land.

Hilton lets out a low whistle, but gives one firm nod of agreement.

Jyn, unsurprisingly, is next. Her eyes bore into him and her mouth is a tight line. "How will we know who we are looking for?" She is already thinking ahead, but Cassian has one bit of information left to share.

"In 3 days, there will be a celebration to begin operations. The security guard told me that the rumors are saying the entire development team will be there to be honored by the Moff responsible for the program. All of them, in the factory itself."

She's white as a sheet. Cassian wishes she'd fight a little. He wonders how much of Jyn will be left to salvage after this; the new one, the hopeful one that had just come back to life after the vindication of her father's betrayal as a noble martyrdom.

"I don't understand. We can't just go shooting up the place. We still run the risk of contamination." Bohdi looks curiously between them.

Cassian breathes out slowly. "The contamination can't be a risk. It has to be the method. The entire factory contaminated on the inside, and sealed forever. The only entrances and exits are the 10 delivery bays. Once 9 are sealed, we release the virus into the air system, and we seal the last door. They'll have time to communicate what has happened, but without the treatment in production yet, we'll have enough time for the Alliance to catch up technologically before they can risk entering the facility. Plus their best geneticists will be gone."

"No!" Ellie gasps. "Absolutely not. How is that any better? How is this the right thing to do? This is as much biological warfare as we are condemning them for!"

"Then suggest something better." He snaps.

Bohdi jumps predictably to her defense. "She's right, this is serious."

"No, no." Ellie mumbles again. "You don't understand. You don't know what you are suggesting. This virus, it doesn't just kill people. It destroys the cell membrane. It attacks fatty tissues first, and the skin. Things you can live on without at first; it prolongs the suffering, but the truth is that your cells are literally falling apart. These people aren't just dying Captain, they'll be _melting._ They'll melt, and it will take _weeks."_

"It's not the method I would choose to kill someone," Hilton comments with some indifference, "but then again, I didn't do the choosing. They made it, they can keep it." He turns to Cassian. "You just let me know what you need from me." He's out the door.

Ellie stands too. "I won't be a part of this. I know I can't stop you. But I can't. I took an oath." She walks out too.

Cassian turns to Bohdi. "And you?" He doesn't mean to sound so accusing, but the righteousness has exacerbated a long buried guilt.

Bohdi, to his credit, looks conflicted and wary. "I think that I don't like killing very much." He says.

Cassian doesn't let himself roll his eyes. "We can kill a handful of the people that brought this into the world, or we can let them wipe out huge populations. The math is simple."

Bohdi rears back in offense. "That's not fair. It's not simple."

"How is this any different than the Death Star? What do you think is going to happen when they blow it up, Rook? You think they'll give the Empire time to evacuate? Tell them about the weakness? A lot of men will die. And it will be for the greater good."

"You can tell me about the greater good all you want. But it isn't going to make this feel any better to me. Rightness and justice can't be boiled down to the numbers!"

Cassian does scoff this time, rising to his feet. His expression is thunderous. "That's easy to say when you can't change the outcome. We know, we have opportunity, and inaction in the face of these facts is more damning than doing what must be done. The odds will never be more in our favor than they are now."

"The odds, huh?" Bohdi sneers. Jyn is leaning back. She has never seen this side of him. "That's what this is about? Maybe you just miss your fucking droid. I'm sure he would agree with your assessment. Too bad you didn't follow his advice all along, huh?"

It's genuinely shocking that Cassian doesn't strike him. His voice is low and controlled. "A righteous cause makes unrighteous men of us all. I expect you to do as you are told in 3 days, pilot."

Bohdi meets his glare head on. "I'll be there, _sir."_ He spits the title, and turns primly for the door.

He whirls now at Jyn, and she meets his eye. He is not the first angry man she has been left alone with.

"Now's the time, Sergeant." He growls.

She doesn't answer, just keeps staring at his face. Frustrated, he storms away toward his room. Jyn follows silently.

The door to his room clicks closed behind her. He lunges at her again. "WELL?!"

She doesn't flinch back. "I'm with you." She assures firmly.

He's not sure why that makes him angrier. "You think you're ready for that? You shoot one prisoner and then suddenly you've got ice all the way to your bones?"

She bristles, and he feels some cruel satisfaction. At last, the fight he's been craving. "I was a guerilla soldier for 7 years. I've been killing men since I was 8. You think you're the only child soldier, you _ass_?"

"I'd hardly call you a soldier! Soldiers have a cause, they do things for a reason. They aren't ashamed to look up from their boots, at least." He's too good at this. It's what had recommended for this job in the first place. It's easy for anyone to see another person's buttons, the little soft spots. It takes someone as angry as him to be willing to use them.

But he's miscalculated. Jyn doesn't reel away with hurt, doesn't flinch or back out the door. She's more alive than ever, shoving him back, eyes alight. "I executed that kid to protect you, and you can't make me ashamed of that! I could see on your face that you couldn't do it."

In this moment, he really _hates_ her. That she feels the need to protect him, that even now she can so freely admit this _something_ that has gone sideways between them, that she can see through him so easily. He wants to scare her, to really destroy something here. He wants to grind the heel of his boot into this fragile fledgling rapport that keeps him up at night.

He grabs her jaw painfully and shoves her forcefully into the door. Her gasp of pain as she grabs her side is grimly satisfying, but she still doesn't look afraid. He bares his teeth for a second than plunges forward.

His lips remind Jyn of their first meeting, of clothes-lining herself on the unforgiving metal of K-2's arm.

His mustache scratches and his hand is too tight on her neck and chin to respond, and he is crushing his mouth too hard on hers to get any leverage if she tried.

His pinky is resting over her pulse and he feels her heart stutter out a faster beat, thrumming double time.

She takes him by surprise again when her hand lands softly, tenderly on his cheek. She rests it there, and the other lets go of her side to stroke soothingly up from his wrist at her neck, up, up, over his elbow, a slow slide on his bicep. He can feel all the anger drain out of him, feels his fingers loosen. The shame is blooming at the back of his mind and he begins to pull away, but she follows. With each gentle stroke of her lips over his, more and more of his fury slips out of reach. His analytical mind flails, tries to reconcile this gentleness with the rough edges of Jyn Erso that he has come to know. When his hand strokes slowly down her neck, curls around to card into her soft brown hair, she sighs into his mouth. His free hand presses into her ribs, then strokes gently across them to her back. When he pulls slightly she comes forward into his chest.

She tilts her head back, and Cassian presses his forehead to hers. Her breath is cool across his chin. He swears he can feel ice water pouring down his spine.

"I honestly expected more of a fight." Jyn whispers.

He had too. More fighting this, more kicking and screaming and clawing back away from such a grievous error. Nothing good can come of this. Jyn is a free woman; no one has successfully held her anywhere, and no place could keep her attention for long. He knows enough of her story to know that she is like water, flowing smoothly over conflict toward the path of least resistance. She is going to leave one day, for she knows no other way, and he cannot follow. But his brain is like a broken record. It keeps stuttering and skipping back over the same thought, _she's here she's here she's here…._

"I don't want to fight." He admits hoarsely.

"That's good. You've probably done enough fighting for today." She agrees. The hand at his cheek falls away to press warmly over his heart.

"Jyn, I don't think I can…." Okay, not a great start.

"I know. We should talk when we… get back." She looks a little hesitant at this, searching his face.

He tries to push some of the warmth into his expression without letting her see the fear, but he suspects she has him pegged. "Whatever it is you want Jyn I think you should know, I want it too."

"How can you be sure? You don't know what I want. I hardly know what I want." It shouldn't be comforting to see some of his doubts reflected on her face. He hopes this means she is taking this seriously.

Cassian smiles. "I'll take what I can get. I want whatever you'll give me." The look she gives him is so incredibly warm that it makes him feel like a goddamn superhero.

She presses another kiss to his lips. _It'll be worth it._ He tries to reassure himself. _Even just this would be worth it._

 **AN: Ahhh, sweet sweet dialogue. My bread and butter. Fun time is over, bitches. We're getting dark, fast. Gonna have a hard time getting the comedic tone back.**

 **Please take the time to leave me a review. I am very grateful for your feedback!**


	9. Kingdom of an Empty Cuckoo's Nest

**Chapter 9: Kingdom of an Empty Cuckoo's Nest**

It had taken Jyn some time to convince Bohdi to be in the same room as Cassian. Even now, as the small transport ship weaves through back alleys in the direction of the factory and they sit side by side, the silence feels stilted and tense.

This, she reasons, could also be related to the anxiety of any covert operation. The deadly intent didn't help anything either.

On Jyn's right, Ellie looks wan. Her fingernails scratch and pull across her skin, lightly scoring her anxiety into pale scratches. Cassian keeps glancing at her hands out of the corner of his eye. His expression is flat, but Jyn thinks they are thinking the same thing. It had taken Jyn even more time to convince Ellie to come along, but they had mapped out her role very carefully. They had even assured that Bohdi would be with her when she insisted. Now, looking at her nervous movements, she's having regrets.

The transport glides smoothly into the wide berth of one of the abandoned buildings, and the somber crew load themselves down with supplies. Jyn truly despises the Imperial pilot's jumpsuit on Cassian; she hates how well it fits him, how handsomely it hangs. It's a disturbing reminder of the men she would have known if her father hadn't defected. She has to look away, so instead she takes Ellie's wrist and squeezes it warmly. "You'll be okay. No one can do this but you; just think of all the lives you can save." Ellie nods, but can't seem to respond.

"Let's get going." Tano remarks firmly, placing a hand on each girls' shoulder. It's surprising for a second, but then Jyn thinks about all of the orphans running rampant in the tunnels, tussling in the caf, and is grateful that perhaps she is a better choice to provide comfort.

As the group rounds the last corner, Hilton and Tano peel away in one direction, Bohdi guiding Ellie in the other. As they wait, Cassian frowns thoughtfully at her.

"What is it?" she snaps finally. He grins a little at that.

"Sorry. I just do not like that uniform on you." Jyn glances critically down her front, smoothing her hands over the fabric. Infantry, Tano had told her. Cannon fodder. She twists her leg a little and frowns back at him.

"I think it fits okay…" oh Force, how pathetic does she sound? Are you not a woman, Jyn Erso? She berates herself.

"The 'you' parts of it are quite lovely. I just am glad it is only a disguise. Your father has done a great kindness to me by keeping you far from Imperial service." He compliments her so matter of factly, as if he has already forgotten what he is saying before it is out of his mouth. He's been making a point of doing that for days. He touches her cheek for a second, then turns on the radio in her ear, then his own.

He's been doing that too, she thinks while Cassian checks in with everyone that their comms are active and functional. Making it a point to touch her. She keeps wondering when it won't startle her, won't make her want to skitter away at the intimacy of it. Some of that is already fading, making way for a soothing warmth.

He's talking to her again. "…name is Naaman, okay? Just stick to Barman though, that is the nickname I gave. You remember your name right? It's Ta-"

"Tabbon Basha," she interrupts. "You call me Tabby though." She holds up the doctored badge for him to see and rattles it a little. The unenthusiastic gesture makes him smile.

It's like a flip has switched then. He closes his eyes, and for a long moment just breathes. When he opens them and offers his arm, she cautiously accepts.

She's watching him the whole walk to the front gate. The security droid looks about as flustered as an automaton can, checking badges and answering questions and pointing out directions.

"That's a lot of people," Jyn mumbles.

"Security, for the Moffs. They won't be coming inside." Cassian explains in a low tone.

The droid looks at their badges long enough to make Jyn's heart start pounding. "The ceremony will be held on the main production floor in 30 minutes." It explains, offering them back. "You can proceed-"

"I know where it is." He's already leading her away.

Ahead of them, 6 of the 10 cargo doors are closed; 2 more than they had planned. The corner of his mouth turns up a little, but he just leads her up the steps and through the threshold of an open bay.

! #! #! #! #! #! #

Bohdi is terrified. His combat experience is pretty limited. What of it he has experienced (Scarif and….that's it) didn't go great. He's got the basics he thinks; point gun, shoot gun, keep moving.

Cassian had told him, despite their rift, that he shouldn't expect much combat at all. It's uncanny how easily he could detect his anxiety,

Either way, Ellie was trembling enough for both of them. Her hand was curled tightly into the back of his shirt where they crouched. She stared hard at the exit door in his periphery, down on one knee between crates in the yard.

"We can review the plan again?" He offers carefully.

The corners of Ellie's mouth tighten; it's the closest thing to a smile she can muster. "You don't know enough about medicine and scientific terminology to review the plan. Your version will take 4 seconds." She glances at him out of her peripheral and imitates his voice again. She's getting good at it. "Find science stuff. Take science stuff. Don't get shot. Don't die." He rolls his eyes.

"You forgot the part about grabbing some of the snacks if we can swing it." His heart unwinds a little when she laughs despite herself.

"The Force save you if we can't swing it; I didn't eat anything at breakfast." Across the tarmac, the door swings open and Jyn peers around for a second, then gestures sharply after spotting them.

A quick scan for anyone watching, and before he can rethink it, Ellie is yanking him to his feet and toward the building. It's a pulse-pounding 4 seconds and Bohdi has never run that fast. Even as his brain pounds out _don't trip don't trip don't trip…_

Cassian is at the end of the hall leaning casually, slowly scanning; anyone outside the hall's line of sight can't see the blaster in his palm.

"We've got," she glances at the device in her hand, "24 minutes until everyone is inside. The lab is through here." Jyn leads the way through a heavy, steel door into a laboratory space, and points across it to another open doorway. "Computer banks and desks are through there. It opens on to the main area so stay quiet and be careful." Ellie is programming the watch in her hand to count down the time remaining. Jyn heads back toward the hall before glancing over her shoulder, "I'll see you both soon." It sounds more like a command.

"You will." Bohdi promises. Ellie is already elbow deep into the supply bins, moving at her typical breakneck pace, and setting aside the equipment they'll be taking with them.

! #! #! #! #

Back in the hall, Cassian is standing more upright, and is whispering back and forth with a security guard. He spots her just as Jyn's hand falls to her blaster, but Cassian waves her over. "Tabby," he says in a relaxed tone. "This is Peter." The security guards smiles tightly at her, then turns back to the captain.

"You're putting me in a bad spot, Barman." He mutters nervously.

"What's he talking about?" Jyn asks suspiciously. How does Cassian know this man? Another informant?

"He was watching the cams outside." Cassian explains. "Saw us sneaking in our friends. I'm just promising him they won't be any trouble. Beck and Lianna are just having a little fun. Stealing some drinks. I'll kick them out myself if you really want…?" Peter hesitates, and Cassian smells a weakness. "Or, we could go enjoy this perfectly good gin. I could really use a friend to help me get rid of it." He lifts a bottle surreptitiously from his pocket. The boy grins, and Jyn sees the trap snap closed.

"You are exactly the kind of friend a bored security drone needs, pal." Peter ducks his head back the way he came, and Jyn and Cassian obligingly follow.

! #! #! #! #

Jyn doesn't have to look at her watch to know that they are in trouble. She estimates they have maybe 10 minutes left to get out of there. From the vantage point of the security desk, she had watched Hilton and Tano place the charges into the air system. Now, they were carefully, quietly sealing the bay doors from the inside. The bang of machinery demonstrations had covered the roar of the welding gun for now. She glanced over her shoulder at the men; Peter's back was turned completely to her (no doubt by design). He didn't seem to notice that he was the only one drinking. 20 minutes wasn't enough time to impair his senses, even at the impressive rate Cassian urged him to take each shot. She suspected he was just hedging their bets. When he glanced her way she lifted her wrist casually so he could see the timer.

There's no outward reaction, but his eyes settle on Peter with a new intensity.

"Why didn't you shoot me?" Jyn freezes. He hasn't been hiding his accent the whole time, and his tone is still casual but there is something different about him. He had changed completely after that moment in the alley; even his purposeful gait had been replaced with something insecure. But now, Cassian in his true form, the only way she knows him, comes fully into power.

Peter sits up a little straighter; the drunkest, most relaxed fool knows an alpha male when he sees one. "What do you mean? When would I have shot you?"

"When you found me in the office. You didn't even reach for your blaster. You did nothing. Why?" He's not hiding anything anymore, Jyn thinks. Barman is gone.

Peter squirms uncomfortably; a good spy would back off now. "I don't even understand what you mean. You were just lost. Why would I shoot you for that?"

A long silence, and Cassian leans back. "You're a noble man, Peter. You're a good man. It's a terrible shame."

The boy laughs a little. "Well soon I'll be a noble, good, drunk man. Gimme the bottle."

Cassian hands it over, and he tips his head back for a last swallow. When his head comes back up, the blaster is aligned perfectly between his eyes.

Jyn doesn't flinch.

Peter slumps to the ground.

Cassian stares for a long second at the empty bottle that's rolled away. "We must go now. Time is almost up."

! #! #! #! #! #! #

Ellie and Bohdi stare for a long moment at the door. The red wires hanging loosely from the ceiling assure them that Jyn's solution to the alarm had been permanent.

"There was no one out there, earlier." Ellie says. She isn't shaking anymore, but she won't meet his eyes.

"I've got a blaster." Bohdi replies. Ellie rolls her eyes.

"Let's do it." Bohdi is reaching for the handle and Ellie bounces on her heels.

He breathes out slow, like his old shooting range coach had taught him, then shoves the door wide open.

Right in the middle of the tarmac between them and the cut they made in the fence, four troopers stand conversing. As one, they all turn to stare at Bohdi and Ellie. No one moves, simply watches as the door slowly swings back closed.

"Shit." Bohdi offers eloquently.

"3 minutes." Ellie reads out from her watch.

Bohdi grabs his blaster and reaches for the door handle again right as Ellie turns to head down the hall.

"Are you kidding?!" she demands.

He considers for a second. "I guess we have time for snacks first." _If I die now, at least I made her speechless_ , he thinks.

She manages to pull him down the hall even as she gapes at him. Overhead, an alarm sounds.

"There were 4 on the emergency exit." Bohdi calls over the radio. "Hilton, you won't be able to seal it without them seeing you."

He can hear the other man's smile. "I'll take care of it."

! #! #! #! #! #

Jyn wonders idly why Cassian prefers to curse in his own language. She supposes it must be some kind of touchstone. It reminds her of her conversation with Tano; she'd spoken in detail about how angry he was in his youth.

The locked door on the security observation room won't slow anyone down for long if they're determined. He leads her quickly back out to the main chamber just as an alarm sounds. He's no longer cursing, surrounded by all these Imperials, but Jyn can't believe the body has been found so quickly.

As if in answer to her question, Bohdi's voice whispers in her ear, describing their dilemma.

"Should we go help?" Cassian shakes his head tersely.

"Hilton and Tano require no backup." He says.

Over the sound of the alarm, they both turn at the sound of roller doors rattling. "They're closing the exit," she breathes. Cassian is already yanking her in that direction. He ignores the 2 troopers that try to stop them. They're the last ones out the door.

"The bays are sealed Bohdi. Jyn and I are coming around to the door to help."

"Over." Bohdi crackles over the radio.

"What over? I didn't hear anything." Cassian calls back as they walk swiftly around the side of the building. Jyn doesn't see any reason not to draw her blaster and Cassian does the same.

"No I mean you didn't say it." Bohdi sounds a little out of breath. "You're supposed to say it after you finish speaking."

Cassian snarls in disbelieving fury.

Jyn glances at her watch; 2 minutes.

! #! #! #! #! #

They're back at the door again. Bohdi hesitates. "Is everyone out there?" Ellie calls.

"Yes, it's clear. Go, now." She shoves the door open this time and Bohdi holds his blaster up. As the door swings open again and they dart out, they see Tano wrench the last trooper across her body like a rag doll.

He hits the ground hard, and lays still. Booming laughter echoes from next to the door frame. Hilton is dropping tack welds on the door behind them, sealing it permanently.

"That was beautiful, babe." He calls across to her.

"He grabbed my butt." Tano yells back.

"He was grabbing anything he could to try and stop you. I think it was incidental contact. Not that I could blame him." He even manages to wink in grandiose fashion.

"Let's get out of here!" Cassian orders from the fence. Hilton and Tano take loping strides to the outside where Jyn stands, guarding their escape. Bohdi is almost completely across the tarmac when things get far worse.

He's on the ground behind a crate before he realizes it's blaster fire he heard.

"Ellie!" Cassian shouts.

2 troopers are leaning around the corner of the building firing at the crate she's crouched behind. Even from here, Bohdi can see the pained twist to her face. Red seeps around the hand gripping her arm.

Cassian and Jyn are already firing back, and the troopers duck back around the corner, but Ellie's eyes are squeezed shut. He's already running back to her before he can feel how hard his heart is pounding.

Her eyes jerk wide when he grabs her elbow and she struggles for a moment until she sees his face.

"I can't….I can't!" she gasps at him.

"Oh please!" Bohdi is kind of glad she's out of it; she doesn't notice his juddering breaths or shaking knees. "Come on, it's just two. You know how this story goes; we gotta give them another try, seeing as there's two of 'em."

She sobs a laugh, but this time when he pulls, she stands and they run across the tarmac.

"You didn't have a chance to seal the last bay doors!" Jyn gasps as they run for the transport together.

"We broke the lifts," Tano replies. She and Hilton are both grinning.

Ellie is laughing and gasping as she runs, arm held stiff. "What is so funny?!" Jyn asks.

She doesn't answer, just opens her hand. In her palm, 3 bite sized pastries, soaked in her blood, bounce. Bohdi can hardly keep running he's laughing so hard. _Maniacs,_ Jyn thinks without heat.

 **AN: I'm a commitaphobe in every way. The moment I said I was doing daily updates, instead of just doing them, BAM total writers block. I had a few sections of this I sketched out that didn't end up working. Let me know what you think. Was it too easy? Was Peter's death unnecessary after the earlier scene with the original pilot Naaman? Did the jokes referencing earlier chapters land?**


	10. No Rest for the Weary

**Chapter 10: No Rest for the Weary**

The goodbyes are brief. With the alarm sounding and the shoot out behind the factory, the Empire is not far behind. Jyn is glad Cassian had the foresight to have them pack before leaving that morning.

By the time she gets Ellie onto the ship, Cassian is strapping their pilfered supplies into the cargo bay and Bohdi is initiating take off.

Jyn stands behind the cockpit door for a moment, watchful. The men aren't really speaking, but they work smoothly together, Cassian running op checks on life support systems, and Bohdi plotting their course off planet.

She takes a few steps back into the hold when the whole ship wrenches abruptly to the left. She hits the door jam hard, and the floor even harder.

"We're under fire!" Cassian yells back. "Get strapped in!" The ship jerks and bucks and Jyn leverages her way into the back by the netting above her head.

Her head is spinning and she can't quite focus her vision, but she swings herself into a seat and yanks a belt across herself. Ellie is struggling with her weak arm beside her, so Jyn manages her buckle too.

 _This is the worst part_ she thinks as they jump and twist through the air, presumably evading fire. At each jerking movement, Ellie makes a whimpering sound, trying hopelessly to stabilize her injured arm. Jyn wedges her elbow under hers, as much cushion as she can manage.

"I've been in worse scrapes than this," she tries for an airy tone. Ellie's blood is warm on her forearm.

"I can't say I'm surprised." Ellie snarks back through a grimace. A sudden spin of the ship makes her stomach roll, compressing under the centripetal force that the artificial gravity cannot correct quickly enough to mask.

"Well, maybe this will surprise you. Back when I was with Saw, we had this mission…." Jyn launches quickly into an engaging story, something about breaking into an imperial armory under the guise of a surprise military inspection. "...we had them all lined up in their rank and file." Jyn crows. "Quizzing them on rules and regulations that we didn't even know the answer too, while everyone else loaded transports full of ammo from the back! They only realized when somebody got the answer wrong and we didn't notice!" Ellie lets herself get sucked into the drama. Her knuckles regain a little color as her fingers loosen. The ship gives the tell-tale shake of a hyperspace jump.

! #! #! #! #! #

Bohdi's leg jumps up and down in a nervous twitch even as his hands twist and pull the control wheel. A U-wing is slower than Imperial patrol craft, he remembers from pilot school. It has a dampened response time due to the possibility of aerodynamic flutter at high speeds. It makes the ships safer for crew transport, but it makes them less than ideal for a dog fight. He also remembers the things he learned from his fellow pilots when he first joined the transport crew; an unburdened U-wing can be just as fast as a fighter plane; it just doesn't have the maneuverability to correct if the ship is thrown off course by turbulence. For that reason, most U-wings have software governors; the ships can only achieve a certain speed before the power is throttled.

The computers have almost completed the hyper-jump calculations, but it won't matter if they are shot out of the sky. _Time to be a fighter pilot, I guess_ Bohdi steels his nerves.

"Andor," he starts. "I need you to type something into the computer command line."

The captain nods and pulls the software input up. "Go ahead." Bohdi recites the line of code he'd learned, but never used.

"And captain?" He adds. "Loosen up the trim tabs for roll and yaw, and have your hands on the entry thruster controls. I'm going to have more power than I can manage with the wheel."

He can't afford to look away from the displays, but he can feel Cassian's appraising stare. The pilot is about to launch into a defense, but right then he feels the tell-tale tremor in the controls of free-swinging tabs. Out of his periphery, he sees the other man rest his fingers over the buttons of the thrusters.

Bohdi takes a deep breath and pushes the throttle. The power is unbelievable. He can almost hear the disbelief of the ships in pursuit. An alert passes across the view screen; incoming missile. He pulls hard starboard, and the ship rolls. The missile screams past, and Bohdi eases them out of it. Cassian drops a single burst to twist the ship back toward open space.

It takes 3 more maneuvers to bring them beyond the atmosphere. He's never felt so alive; his heartbeat is loud in his ear but slow. He feels every part of him narrowed to the task. Suddenly, the nav computer beeps; hyper jump is ready.

"Where are we headed?" He asks.

"Dantooine. It's an abandoned base; we can't risk them following us home." Cassian presses the hyperspace button, and a blur of stars wipes across the view port.

! #! #! #! #

It'll be an hour to the desert planet. Jyn fills the time with nervous energy, re-securing the cargo that shifted in their hasty exit. She can't believe how calm the men are; Bohdi patiently works out pre-planned exit routes from Dantooine and Cassian is quietly typing out a report of their mission to Command. After she's checked and re-checked every strap and ensured the integrity of every piece of fragile machinery, she paces back to the hold.

From the doorway, she watches Ellie's back. She is trying and failing to secure a bandage over the blistered wound on her bicep. After a moment of struggle, she throws the bandage roll to the ground, yelping in pain when the still attached end yanks at the injury. Jyn moves quickly to help, scooping up the bandage. She freezes though when she sees her tear-stained face.

She runs quickly through a list, and settles on one. "We made it out just fine." She says in a soothing tone as she leads her to sit and starts pulling the bandage in a tight wrap around the wound. "Bohdi really is a great pilot. Cassian said the rebellion left some caches of supplies at the base, so we'll be able to resupply and then go home." The word sounds strange to her. Ellie's face crumples.

"I wasn't thinking about any of that…" She chokes. "All those people in the factory…" She's struck with sudden clarity by the perfect nature of the girl's profession; even as she bandages her blaster burns, Ellie can think of nothing else than the suffering she could not stop from happening. Jyn takes a breath and opens her mouth, but Ellie jumps in quickly. "I understand what you said. That we had to stop this disease. I know better than anyone how horrific it could be if it got out before we could develop a vaccine. I know what we talked about too; that the Empire would have let it wipe out a lot of people. I know all that, I even know we did the right thing it's just…"

Jyn nods. She is as familiar as anyone with the strange, twisted faux-logic of survivor-ship. "We owe them. Even if they didn't want to die, they died so that more lives could be saved. The only thing we can do is make sure it was for something. If you want to let them live on, you've got to give them some of your life. Do the things that have to be done to make their sacrifice mean something."

Ellie is still crying, but her hands are steady on her knees. Jyn ties off the bandage and stands uncertainly in front of her. "I'm sorry you came with us. You were only here because you were trying to keep me alive. I haven't forgotten that."

The hand wave is aborted because of her limited motion, but still dismissive. "I'm not a doctor for the thanks, Jyn. I'll live with what I did for better or worse. Don't need any excuses." But she pats her knee gratefully and her smile is less watery than before.

A little uncomfortable, Jyn takes her leave.

As she steps into the cockpit, the stars streaking by shimmer and flatten out; in front of them, Dantooine bursts into focus. Cassian consults the navigation systems map. "Head starboard around the planet, near the southern pole." Bohdi obliges.

There about a mile above the first wispy layer of atmosphere when the ship jumps and an alarm shrieks to life. Jyn stares disbelievingly through the view port. "How'd they beat us here?!"

Cassian is already typing into the comm. "They're coming up from off planet." He tilts his head at the 4 crafts soaring up out of the atmosphere. He snatches the page with Bohdi's calculations. "Point us toward Yavin, those types of ships won't be able to track us through hyperspace," he instructs tersely.

" _What the hell was that?"_ Ellie yells from below.

"Imps were lying in wait!" Jyn answers as she climbs down to strap in again.

She's swearing like a sailor. "Can't we solve ANYTHING without blasters?!"

"What did she say?" Bohdi yells from above.

"A lot of foul words! She's a keeper!" Jyn shouts back with a grin. It's amazing, she thinks, how quickly we adapt.

! #! #! #! #! #! #

Before they open the ramp, Cassian stops them. "Jyn, you and Bohdi need to stay together. They didn't find any accomplices to Vosix, but they could still be there." He's been wary of addressing Bohdi, and Jyn is disappointed that their cooperative flying hasn't eased the tension.

"I agree," Bohdi volunteers, but his head is down, and his eyes turned away. Jyn just nods. Satisfied, Cassian opens the bay and leads the crew down to meet Commander Ym.

"She doesn't look mad," Ellie whispers to Bohdi.

"Why be mad?" Ym frowns. "My opinion seems to me very little to the lot of you anyway. Captain, with me. The rest of you, be easy to find. You'll all be interviewed on the events of the day you departed soon. Very soon."

She turns smartly on her heel and Cassian follows without looking back.

 **AN: This story has got probably 2 or 3 more chapters to go...not sure how much I want to elaborate and describe a few things, and how much I can put into implication. If the viewing stats are any indication, a lot of people hated Chpt 6! Please let me know if there is something I can do better! The heart of progress is criticism. :)**


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